Judge shortage leaves area courts in a bind
As published on page one of the Sept. 27 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.
All kinds of conflicts are resolved in courtrooms, from the aftermath of murder and embezzlement to loans that can't be repaid and marriages that haven't worked out.
Judges -- the people with the training and authority to make legal decisions -- are essential to the functioning of the court. And in New Hampshire these days, judges are in short supply.
State officials have been holding off on appointing judges to save money.
But those savings are starting to have costs, say lawyers who represent clients in Cheshire County courts.
With three judges out, local courts are starting to feel the pinch.
"If you file (for a divorce) today you probably aren't going to get a hearing date for six months," said Kathleen O'Donnell, an attorney who practices family law in Keene.
That estimate is up from about three months not that many years ago. The wait leaves her clients in limbo, O'Donnell said.
"Family law is extremely emotional," she said. "You're dealing with people's lives."
Who gets the house? Who gets the kids? Who pays the bills?
"It's kind of gotten gradually worse -- it was just gradually extended," said Theodore H. Parent, another Keene attorney who has also noticed the delays.
A part-time marital master is available for divorces, but Cheshire County Superior Court Judge John P. Arnold also heard divorces up until he recently announced his plans to retire.
Retired Judge Philip P. Mangones has been filling in on Superior Court cases since Labor Day. But the court has a limited budget to pay retired judges for their time, said Barbara A. Hogan, who serves as clerk for both Cheshire and Sullivan county superior courts.
The Cheshire County court already went for a time in August without a judge at all.
And although Mangones is carrying a heavy caseload, he can't take up some of the more complicated cases that could run for months or even years, because of the limited time he is available.
"You can't step in to the middle of surgery and do two stitches and step away," Hogan said.
Help is on its way, but assigning Arnold's replacement could take as long as four months, Superior Court Chief Justice Tina L. Nadeau said in an interview.
The Legislature has capped the number of Superior Court judges in the state at 18 for the biennium, down from the 22 provided for in the state statutes.
Meanwhile, a case load study that was conducted more than five years ago found that the real demand for Superior Court judges in the state was 24.5, Nadeau said.
Of the state's 59 full-time judicial positions, 11 are vacant.
In July, 15 percent of New Hampshire's judicial workforce had been missing for more than a year, according to the Judicial Branch communications office.
Court staffs have also been severely cut in the most recent budget, and Cheshire County isn't the only place where judicial time is spread thin.
In the state's busiest superior courts, such as in Nashua, judges are each hearing 1,700 cases a year, according to Nadeau.
"I think they're really starting to feel the paradox of the pressure to make decisions that are timely and also make sure they're thorough," she said.
Arnold's retirement brings the number of judges in the system down below the threshold of 18, and Gov. John H. Lynch is preparing to appoint a new judge to fill the vacancy, Nadeau said.
While superior court staff wonder when, and by whom, Arnold's seat will be filled, their colleagues in the probate division are in a position of even less certainty.
Judge Albert H. Weeks has been on medical leave since late April. Michael Feeney, a judge in Sullivan County's probate court, had been filling in -- until Feeney was hospitalized following a bicycle accident in June.
Probate court handles a variety of questions relating to estates, including the execution of wills and the management of charitable trusts. Probate judges also settle child custody disputes.
"It's really matter of digging and scraping and trying to find judge time," said Larry Kane, clerk of the 8th Circuit Court in Keene, which covers probate and district courts.
The addition of a "referee" -- an experienced lawyer who hears routine matters and then passes on her decisions to a probate judge to sign off on them -- has taken up some of the probate backlog, Kane said.
Long-term absences are not unusual, said Edwin W. Kelly, who oversees the New Hampshire circuit court as administrative judge.
But having fewer judges overall makes the absences harder to handle, he said.
The recent creation of the circuit court system has helped, Kelly said, because judges can be shared between the previously separate district and probate courts.
But the circuit court system still has seven full-time and four part-time judicial vacancies, which do not include the absences of Weeks and Feeney.
Keene's probate court should expect judicial reinforcements within a month to 45 days, Kelly said.
The final piece in Keene's courtroom puzzle is the circuit court's district division, where Judge Edward J. Burke presides full-time with part-time support from Judge Howard B. Lane Jr.
The district division handles misdemeanors, including driving violations and criminal mischief, and is the first stop for felonies that are then passed along to the superior court.
Support staff in that court have been reduced, but unlike the probate and superior courts, judge hours don't seem to be a major concern.
That is, as long as Burke stays in his position.
If he were to leave the district division would also be scrounging for judge time, Kane said.
"I'm sure there'd be canceled sessions," he said.
Residents waiting for their day in court have little choice but to keep waiting.
"I have clients who are in real distress," O'Donnell said. "Weeks and months matter in the life of a person."
tagged with: court system funding, feature, state budget
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